Russia’s AI Blueprint Exposes an Authoritarian Playbook

Russia, China, and Iran are all sharing the same playbook for corrupting Western elections. The U.S. is on track to be the next target this November.A troveof Russian documents leaked in May outlines Moscow’s plans to use AI to warp foreign decision making and sway elections. The Kremlin’s “Projects 2026“ strategy reveals Russia’s plot to influence upcoming elections in Europe and Israel. Their tactics are similar to those used by China and Iran for years, and what emerges isn’t a Russian innovation — it’s a shared authoritarian playbook.Projects 2026 calls for the creation of an opinion leader database to monitor the social media profiles of 10,000 influential individuals across Europe, including the 100 most prominent opposition figures in France alone. This is precisely the model Chinese state-aligned company GoLaxy piloted against the United States in 2025. The firm reportedly built constantly evolving psychological profiles of 117 members of Congress and roughly 2,000 additional American opinion leaders.Researchers at Vanderbilt University warned that GoLaxy appeared prepared to target these individuals with messaging aligned to Beijing’s priorities. By monitoring the social m...